Tiers and Preferences usage and replenishment

Optionally, you can enable usage tracking and replenishment of your tiered and preferred products, allowing for more efficient inventory levels. This feature tracks usage for a stocked product that you have identified as the highest priority preference in a tier group, and ensures that product's inventory is maximized through the Authorized replenishment path (ARP) and Recommended Replenishment Action Reports (RRAR).

To enable this feature, assign a numeric priority to a Product Preference in SA Table Code Value Setup, select Yes in the Allow Usage Movefield in Product Warehouse Description Setup, and clear Exclude Usage Move in Product Warehouse Product Setup. Ensure that the numeric priority is associated with only one product preference in a tier group. For example, for the Tier, Best: drill bit, in Tier group 09876, only product A is assigned the Preference numeric priority of 1.

When a product is ordered in Sales Order Entry, the system validates the settings to determine if the product is identified with a tier, tier group, and preference. If the product has an associated preference, the system validates whether you have enabled the usage and replenishment feature. If enabled, the system validates for the highest priority stocked product in that tier and warehouse. If that priority is the highest priority, the system associates the usage with that product.

This usage is added to the product transaction record (ICET), and then is applied through typical processing, such as the Sales Entry Invoice Processing Report and Product Administration Month End Processing Report. Because the usage was moved to the highest preference product, you keep more in inventory for that product and decrease the amount of inventory carried for the lower preference products.